Congress seeks breach of privilege against Dy CM Dushyant

The notice submitted under rule 281 of the rules of procedure and conduct of business of the assembly said that Dushyant levelled false and misleading allegations against Jhajjar MLA, Geeta Bhukkal

: Congress MLAs on Monday submitted a notice to the Haryana assembly speaker seeking to invoke a question involving breach of privilege by Deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala for allegedly making false and misleading allegations against Congress MLA and former education minister Geeta Bhukkal.

Congress seeks breach of privilege against Dy CM Dushyant

The deputy chief minister had on December 15, the opening day of the three-day assembly session accused Bhukkal of sheltering Kartar Singh, the Jind school principal who was arrested recently for allegedly sexually exploiting girl students, when she was the education minister during the Congress rule. The Congress MLAs said that this matter be sent to the Committee of Privileges.

The notice submitted under rule 281 of the rules of procedure and conduct of business of the assembly said that Dushyant levelled false and misleading allegations against Jhajjar MLA, Geeta Bhukkal.

Dushyant, who is the JJP MLA from Uchana Kalan assembly constituency in Jind, had accused Bhukkal of sheltering the accused school principal when she was the state education minister in 2011. On Monday, the deputy CM corrected himself by saying that second incident allegedly involving the accused principal took place in 2012, not in 2011.

The notice seeking to raise breach of privilege said that the deputy CM has alleged that allegations were levelled against Kartar Singh who was posted as headmaster at a school at Makhand in 2011. He further alleged that a daily diary report was also registered in police station Uchana and a meeting/panchayat was held at the Jhajjar residence of Geeta Bhukkal who was a minister at that time to work out a compromise.

“The daily diary report was withdrawn and the said person Kartar Singh was exonerated,” the notice said quoting the deputy CM.

“Today Dushyant Chautala tried to over-qualify the statement that this incident had occurred in 2012 and also admitted that Kartar Singh was not in service in 2005. Bhukkal strongly refuted the charges and has even submitted a reply to the Speaker that she doesn’t know the delinquent. She also stated that no panchayat had ever took place at her residence at Jhajjar and she did not have a house at Jhajjar at that time. She has stated that no daily diary report or first information report had been registered at Uchana police station from 2008 to 2014 of any such incident,” said the notice seeking the consent of the Speaker to raise the question of privilege.

Hooda objects to judicial inquiry of House proceedings

Earlier, leader of the opposition in the House Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Monday objected to the proposed move to hand over assembly proceedings with regard to allegations made by deputy CM on December 15 against former education minister Geeta Bhukkal to a sitting judge of the Punjab and Haryana high court for inquiry.

Hooda insisted that the terms of reference should include inquiring into the background and activities of the principal, and not the proceedings of the assembly.

Speaker Gian Chand Gupta said that the terms of reference of the inquiry will entail establishing the veracity of allegations and counter allegations.

Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar said that the home department is writing to the high court in this regard.

Hooda told the Speaker that he should uphold the dignity of the House. Gupta said that the decision to request for an inquiry by a sitting high court judge was taken by the House. “Aisa tamasha mat karo (Don’t make a mockery of the issue). The Speaker can inquire, the state government can inquire. The assembly proceedings should not be subjected to the scrutiny of the high court,” Hooda said.

Khattar told the House that the decision to get the matter inquired by a high court judge was taken by the assembly during its December 15 sitting and no one objected to it at that time.

“The home department is writing to the high court. If the chief justice declines the request of the state government, then we can think of another option,” he said.

The matter came up for discussion during the zero hour on Monday on the second day of the winter session of the Haryana assembly.

Let the matter be legally examined in light of constitutional provisions: Batra

Congress MLA BB Batra later said that the state government should get the matter legally examined in terms of Article 105 of the Constitution which pertained to the powers, privileges of the Houses of Parliament and its members. Article 194 actually relates to the power and privileges of members of state legislatures.

Batra said that as per the Constitution, there shall be freedom of speech in the state legislature and no member of the legislature shall be liable to any proceedings in any court in respect of anything said or any vote given by him in the legislature…

“Let this aspect be examined by the law secretary before the state government sends a communication to the high court for an inquiry by a sitting judge,” the Congress MLA said.

Chief minister ML Khattar agreed to Batra’s contention and said that a meeting of the business advisory committee of the House will be convened Tuesday morning to deliberate on the issue.